Next story in The Ed Show

ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC ANCHOR: Good evening, Americans, and welcome to THE ED SHOW tonight from New York.

These stories are hitting “My Hot Buttons” at this hour.

President Obama warned us foreign money could be influencing our elections, and it now seems to be coming true pretty fast, real fast. The right-wing Chamber of Commerce is pumping millions of dollars into our elections and they‘re not really coming clean with the American people saying this is definitely not coming from overseas.

There is absolutely no oversight on where this money is coming from and where it‘s going, and I think it‘s disgraceful and very dangerous to this country. Commentary coming up.

Rush Limbaugh is on the offensive against President Obama. This time he calls the president a jackass. His hate is influencing a lot of white, low-information voters. The polls are showing that. The Reverend Jesse Jackson responds to that at the bottom of the hour.

I like this story. Randy Moss is making waves in the sports pages across America and in politics today. Senator Russ Feingold can‘t be happy about either one of the headlines. Stephen A. Smith joins me in the “Playbook” tonight.

But we start with this. This is the story that has me fired up tonight.

If you don‘t find this absolutely appalling as an American, or if you‘re not even ready to question it, you better get your thinking cap on. The chamber is under no rules to disclose where the money comes from so they can say anything they want.

I don‘t buy it, and neither does Senator Al Franken of Minnesota. He wants the FEC to investigate and insist that foreign companies prove where the funds are going.

Fair enough? Is that fair?

All the righties are getting a boost from the chamber and they‘re looking the other way, so they‘re just playing dumb. Well, we don‘t know anything about that.

Today, outside a fund-raiser for Sharron Angle, a reporter caught up with Congressman Roy Blunt. Blunt has the full support of the chamber. Here is the exchange.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, the Chamber of Commerce has admitted that its accepting foreign money from businesses like the Bahrain Petroleum Company, and they are suing that same bank account to run attack ads. Excuse me, Congressman Blunt. I have a membership application that the Chamber of Commerce is distributing in Bahrain asking for funds to the same campaign account used to run campaign advertisements here in America.

Do you have any comment on that?

REP. ROY BLUNT ®, MISSOURI: I have no idea what you‘re talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: You know, I want to respond to the people that claim that we are nothing but a bunch of commie and pinkos and everything else that were at that rally in Washington, D.C., last Saturday.

If you are on the other side, explain why your guy couldn‘t at least answer the question. Explain how you feel about this, conservatives.

Now, I‘m going to say this loud and clear. It is flat-out dangerous that we don‘t know where the money is coming from and foreign countries are influencing our electoral process.

President Obama, he tried to warn us about this in the State of the Union Address when conservative Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito suggested that the president was lying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections. I don‘t think American elections should be bankrolled by America‘s most powerful interests or, worse, by foreign entities.

They should be decided by the American people. And I‘d urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct some of these problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: A couple of things here, folks.

First of all, the president was absolutely spot on, called it before it happened. It‘s a tsunami of money that‘s now coming into America. And, of course, if you are on the side that‘s getting all the money and you keep your mouth shut, well, I challenge you. That‘s not American.

Now, what about national security? What about defense contracts?

Do you think foreign countries might want to build our stuff? Do you think it would hurt manufacturing even further? Do you think this will gut the middle class even more?

Because what you‘d have is you would have foreign companies that would be going through the Chamber of Commerce, and they would be saying, you know what? We‘re going to scratch the back of your guy, but we‘ve got to get this manufacturing and these jobs over at our place. And you know what? We would like some of those defense contracts too.

Damn. We‘ve got a global economy. We‘ve got us a global election right here at home.

You know what we‘re doing now? We are fighting them here instead of over there. That‘s what we‘re doing when it comes to American jobs. We‘re fighting them right here at home.

On the other hand, would this discourage anybody from running, maybe some good quality people across America that are thinking about public service? Think again there, big guy. Are you going to outfund these people? It isn‘t going to happen.

The liberals in this country have no chance of matching this kind of money. The machine is just starting to roll. And it is dangerous for this country.

Now, we have seen 40 people in this country stand up and say no to everything. What do they say to this? Are they going to be quite about this, or are they going to step up and be American and say this is wrong for our American elections?

If you think the Chinese don‘t want to own everything we do, think again. Now they can own your congressman. Now they can own your senator. They can control who gets in and who gets out, because money is the root of all evil even in politics.

And the voice of the little guy in America is going to be drowned out so bad, we will not recognize our country. Give it about, oh, three election cycles. That‘s what it‘s really going to take, about three election cycles, and we will see zero clean energy people in the United States Congress, because the oil boys will make sure that that ain‘t going to happen.

The overseas oil interests will make sure there‘s no clean energy people getting in the Congress in the United States of America. Heck, they want to screw up our business. They want to hit our profit. They wan to change things in America.

We, as red-blooded Americans, ought to be furious about what is happening right now. You know, it‘s a national security issue. It is a national security issue. And it‘s pretty damn scary, I think.

Get your cell phones out, folks. I want to know what you think.

Tonight‘s tech survey question is: Are you worried foreign money is influencing our elections? Text “A” for yes, text “B” for no to 622639. We‘ll bring you the results later on in the show.

Joining me now is Leo Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers.

SCHULTZ: But I think this is a turning point for America. What do you think?

GERARD: Ed, I don‘t think you‘re overstating it. Let me say categorically that this is outrageous, it‘s wrong. It shouldn‘t be tolerated. No other country on earth would tolerate this.

The Chamber of Commerce is collecting from dozens of Middle East companies, dozens of Middle East oil interests. They are collecting from China—I was just reading they‘re collecting from China, India, Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia, to name just a few.

And they normally regularly put out what they call action alerts, telling those businesses and those countries that Democrats are trying to force local hiring, trying to force local job creation, and encourage them to donate to them. This is outrageous. And the chamber has been responding by saying, well, they put it in a general fund and they have processes.

Let me say this—that‘s an insult to the average American‘s intelligence. If I put all the money in the pot, and the money that I used to pay for rent or I used to use to pay for coffee, now I don‘t have to pay for that. I can use my foreign money to pay for coffee, and that releases my money to run attack ads.

Who do they think they are kidding? This is an insult to America, and they should be held accountable. They should be made to say every single donation from every single country from every single company, America is not for sale to the Chamber of Commerce or to foreign corporations.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Gerard, what do you make of the chamber‘s response that the money goes into a general fund because of the way they are set up with a federal tax code, there really is no way of tracking this? Do we not take their word for it?

GERARD: It‘s not a matter of taking the word for it. That‘s an insult to our intelligence.

Money is fungible, so the money that I used to use to pay for coffee, or used to pay for rent to rent my buildings, I no longer have to use that. I can use the foreign money if that‘s what they‘re saying. Then I release my money to do attack ads.

Ed, up until September the 15th, they had done 8,000 attack ads on Democrats with foreign money. Now, that‘s an insult and America ought to be outraged. Every Republican who is having that happen should stand down and should be defeated.

SCHULTZ: Leo, will this set the table for a fast track of outsourcing of jobs? Because a lot of these foreign countries will come and say, look, we‘re going to back your guy. This is where we want to go, backdoor deals being made. But we really want this manufacturing site in our country.

GERARD: No, it‘s not a bridge too far. In fact, what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been doing, Ed—as many of us have been fighting to bring jobs, you‘ll remember that every Republican voted against bringing jobs home. While we were doing that, the chamber was sending action alerts to China and to India and to Egypt and to Russia and to countries all over the world in the Middle East saying that Democrats were trying to force local hiring at the expense of your jobs. Donate so we can help you.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

GERARD: And they‘re attacking American workers. They‘re attacking American politicians who want to bring jobs home by recruiting money from foreign corporations and foreign countries.

Ed, this is an outrage. When I was a young man, I never thought I would see America come to this, where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was working against America.

SCHULTZ: Amazing stuff.

Leo Gerard, president of Steelworkers.

Good to have you with us tonight.

The story continues here. Bill Halter, lieutenant governor of Arkansas, joins us tonight, who was in a primary fight against Senator Blanche Lincoln and had a lot of corporate money thrown at him.

I want to play this commercial. More money in a campaign forces a candidate to defend his or herself by outlandish types of accusations. Here‘s one of them.

NARRATOR: With almost 65,000 Arkansans out of work, we need jobs, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you, Bill Halter.

NARRATOR: Bangalore says thanks, Bill Halter.

Arkansas, tell Bill Halter thanks for nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Now, the irony of this, folks, is the corporate candidate in that race was Senator Blanche Lincoln, not Bill Halter.

Bill, what about all that?

LT. GOV. BILL HALTER (D), ARKANSAS: Well, the fact is, Ed, that ad was paid for by a shadow group called Americans for Job Security. They have routinely intervened in general elections on behalf of Republican candidates against Democrats.

But to our knowledge, this was the first time that this Republican shadow front group intervened on behalf of a Democratic candidate against another Democratic candidate in a primary. I also believe you won‘t be seeing them in the general election. They did the damage they wanted to do in the primary.

SCHULTZ: OK.

You‘re on a mission to try to change this. What do Democrats do? You can‘t match the money, can you?

HALTER: I think you have to demand full disclosure. I haven‘t met a single Arkansan—I haven‘t met a single American who wouldn‘t want to know where the money is coming from and just demand full disclosure.

You can‘t possibly get to the motivation that‘s driving contributions to candidates if the contributors are anonymous. How can voters know why these ads are being placed? Americans for Job Security, other groups like it, they are simply political hit shops funded anonymously.

SCHULTZ: Yes. Mr. Halter, would you go so far to agree with me that this is the end of the little guy having a voice in our democracy? What do you think?

HALTER: Well, I‘ve got to tell you, it certainly puts the balance in favor of somebody who can spend millions of dollars personally, or millions of dollars out of one organization, especially if you don‘t even have the counterbalance of knowing who they are and thereby, being able to describe why they are doing it.

SCHULTZ: I think this is going to discourage a lot of people thinking about public service.

HALTER: I think it‘s one in a trend of things that‘s going to drive good people out of seeking public office. It‘s a real tragedy, Ed. And the only way we‘re going to reverse this is for the American people to demand that it be reversed.

SCHULTZ: Coming up, “The Drugster” has gone totally off the rail. Wait until you hear his new nickname for the president of the United States. The guy has zero respect. More on that in “The Battleground” story.

Plus, the White House is hot over the rumor that Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, hey, they‘re going to be trading places in 2012. What a bunch of smoke. I‘ve got commentary on that and “Rapid Fire Response.”

And Dick Armey is about to get schooled. Christine O‘Donnell is about to get sold. And the freak is coming home to the Vikes. And I‘m pumped up about that.

You‘re watching THE ED SHOW on MSNBC. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW and thanks for watching tonight.

Time is flying by. We‘re now less than a month away from a crucial election. Progressives are working hard to keep the Democratic majority in power.

But in Congress, the minority is ruling, I think. Forty-one Republicans in the Senate are holding change and jobs flat-out hostage. According to “The Hill,” 420 bills passed by the House are just sitting around collecting dust over in the Senate because of Republican obstructionists there saying no, no, no.

In the month of September Congress was in session, 48 of them were put on the shelf. Republicans are playing hardball politics with your lives and our jobs. And I find it flat-out un-American.

For more, let‘s bring in Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow. Her state suffers one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

Senator, good to have you with us.

And the real question I think that the Democrats are banking on here, the answer is, do the voters understand what obstruction is? Are they schooled up enough about the minutia to understand exactly what the “party of no” is doing?

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D), MICHIGAN: Well, Ed, you raise a very good point.

And I think the strategy from the very beginning is very clear.

It‘s been public that the Senate Republican leader, even before the president was sworn in, decided that the president ran on a platform of change. And if they stopped any change from happening in people‘s lives, that somehow they would benefit from that, that we will have failed.

Now, the reality is we‘ve gotten things done anyway. And we‘ve gotten the Recovery Act, we‘ve gotten the small business bill, and so on. Bu it‘s been painfully slow.

And as you‘ve said, we now have some 400 different pieces of legislation, many of them directly related to jobs that are being held up. And so the question is, how do we communicate that so that people understand who has been trying to move the country forward, moving it forward slowly, but who‘s been trying to move it forward and who‘s trying to move it back?

SCHULTZ: Yes. But that really is the key for the Democrats now, to make the American people understand what obstruction is, how many bills are passed in the House, how many have been held up in the Senate, and who are you going to hold accountable for it? That‘s really what this is about at this point for the Democrats, isn‘t it?

You were talking earlier about the influence of foreign money coming into the country, which is extremely concerning to me. Well, we‘re trying to stop jobs being outsourced. I mean, in my judgment, we export products, not jobs. That‘s what we ought to fight for in America.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

STABENOW: And the Republicans stop a bill that would close loopholes that are sending jobs overseas. And then they have got help from foreign money coming in to defeat our candidates who are fighting for middle class workers and people who have lost their jobs.

The small business bill, in the end, we worked on that for about a year. We finally got that done. And two courageous Republicans joined us to stop a filibuster. But we haven‘t seen the full impact of those small business loans and tax cuts as we would have if it had been passed a year ago.

SCHULTZ: Yes. Senator, I‘ve got to—

STABENOW: And so that‘s what this is about.

SCHULTZ: -- ask you, why do you think white working voters are turning against the Democrats? I mean, the latest poll that‘s out there shows that the working class American white voters, they are peeling off of President Obama. We‘re going to talk about this more in the show later tonight, but I want your opinion on this.

STABENOW: Right. Ed, people are hurting. They are legitimately fearful. Their house is under water. Their job may be under water if they have a job, and they may be getting paid less.

Republicans, with huge amounts of money, have been redirecting them away from the folks causing it, away from the folks who believe that, you know, the best policy is to give to the very, very rich and then hope that it trickles down. And folks in Michigan are still waiting for it to trickle down, by the way.

SCHULTZ: No doubt. Senator, great to have you with us tonight.

STABENOW: They are redirecting that.

SCHULTZ: I want to thank you—

STABENOW: It‘s good to be with you.

SCHULTZ: -- for the—you held your word to me. You took unemployment benefits to the floor trying to help the 99ers. And again, as we were just talking about obstruction, it was the Republicans, LeMieux from Florida, who has nothing to lose, was the obstructer. He was appointed by the Republicans to do it.

You held your word. I appreciate it. And thanks for your time tonight.

STABENOW: That is all—

SCHULTZ: You bet.

Tea Party cheerleader Dick Armey wants to put the screws to students who are trying to graduate with degrees. Well, we just got to school the old North Dakotan up next in the “Zone.”

FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey went on the wrong network last night to plug the Tea Party platform—only a few dozen people saw it—which essentially amounts to cutting all federal spending.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIOT SPITZER, CNN: Would you have the federal government pay for higher education? You were a university professor.

DICK ARMEY, CHAIRMAN, FREEDOMWORKS: No, I would not.

SPITZER: You would not have any funding? No government funding?

ARMEY: No. I don‘t think the federal government‘s involvement in higher education has benefited the students of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Buddy, I think the millions of students who benefited from the more than $75 billion in federal student loans last year would probably disagree, not to mention the 6.2 million students who received federally funded Pell Grants.

ARMEY: The education of our young people should be under the jurisdiction and under the auspices of the state government. The state of Texas has a great university system that‘s not been made any better by the federal government involvement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Uh-oh. Here comes the “Psycho Talk.”

He thinks federal funding for education hasn‘t helped Texas? The percentage of students in Texas who benefited from federal funding is higher than the national average. During the 2006-2007 school year, 83 percent of the students in Texas used federal loans, those socialists, compared to 71 percent of all Americans.

Come on, Dick. Get a grip.

And in 2007, 2008, more than 400,000 Texans received Pell Grants.

Federal funding makes it possible for millions of kids to go to college across America. But the Tea Partiers don‘t get that.

And a great university system doesn‘t have a heck of a lot of good if the students can‘t afford to be a part of it.

And Christine O‘Donnell, she is what? She is multiplying? Just what we need, more witches. I‘ll explain that one in the “Playbook.”

All that, plus “The Tan Man” is in trouble. Arnold Schwarzenegger, he‘s making sense. And Stephen A. Smith is here to talk about the freak back to the Minnesota Vikings.

You‘re watching THE ED SHOW on MSNBC. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ED SCHULTZ, HOST “THE ED SHOW”: And to the Battleground story tonight, the drugster, Rush Limbaugh thinks President Obama is a jackass who wants America to fail. And some middle class Americans are buying this garbage hook, line and sinker. The drugster just unleashed this verbal assault.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: He is a jackass. He is an economic illiterate, economic ignoramus and that‘s being charitable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Limbaugh is going nuts because President Obama wants him to pay an additional four percent on his taxes? Limbaugh‘s net worth is estimated just north of $300 million, which puts him in the high end of the top two percent. Now, when you‘re that rich, I guess you can say whatever the heck you want without consequences including calling the president a jackass and when Rush played the Barack, the magic negro song on his show and called him African-American, nothing happened. When he called the president of the Unites States uppity, nobody batted an eye. And when he said, he wanted the president to fail, what happened? Well, the Republicans went over and genuflected to him.

Limbaugh and the rest of the 450 right-wing talkers in America have been on a mission to convince white working class Americans that the president of the United States is out to destroy this country. And a new poll shows, maybe it is starting to work. White Americans without a college degree, just like Limbaugh, favor Republicans 58 percent to 36 percent. Working class older white voters have been peeling away from President Obama. This time around, Rush and the hate merchants across the street have convinced them that the president is a Muslim and he‘s on a mission to just get all the money out of their pocket and just get them out of existence. There is no reason in my opinion for a 50-year-old white guy with a mortgage, a pension plan and a couple of kids in college to vote for a republican.

Democrats, what do they do? Well, they pass health care for that 50-year-old dude with a couple of kids in college and pass college financial aid for the kids. Financial reform to protect his pension and money for small businesses to help him, you know, maybe keep his job. Republicans, keep in mind have done nothing to stop middle class jobs from being shipped overseas. So, here is the landscape for the whole thing, old, white, angry, middle class voters are being affected by all this Rush garbage and the 450 righty talkers across America. Limbaugh wants the middle class, white Americans to be very afraid of a black president with kind of a funny name.

He thinks diversity is socialism and he thinks equal rights is an absolute joke. I saw a completely different America on the national mall this weekend. People of every color were speaking with one voice on Saturday. Twenty seven days from now, Americans, you can do your part. You can fight the Rush attack or whatever you want to call it in this dark vision of America by standing up and voting your conscience. What is best for this country? Is it always about the money?

Joining me now is Reverend Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Reverend, good to have you with us tonight.

REV. JESSE JACKSON, PRESIDENT, RAINBOW PUSH COALITION: Good to see you Saturday.

SCHULTZ: You bet. I‘ll ask you the same question I asked Senator Stabenow, why do you think white voters are turning away from the president? The polls are showing this. What do you think is happening here, Reverend?

JACKSON: Well, they are traveling on buckets of fear. Most poor people are white, female and young. When President Barack came in office, we were gushing 75,000 jobs a month. And they were mostly white workers, he stopped that gushing, 50,000 troops are now home from Iraq. They are mostly white soldiers. And so, what President Barack has done, he has reversed the flow of the river, we‘ll all better off. What pays me as revealed the name calling type thing is that the vulgar amount of foreign money being spent to purchase our democracy should be of a great concern. The growth of poverty in our country. And the great things of our country are being sidetracked by these—President Obama is American, he is a Christian and he‘s leader of the free world.

SCHULTZ: Well, how do we turn this around? What would be the strategy? I mean, these right-wing talkers reach what, 40 million Americans a day? There are 450 of them across the country, they‘re in the misinformation business, it is very clear, first, they were after President Obama said, they wanted him to fail but now it has evolved into the kind of things that Limbaugh is talking about. And it‘s freedom of speech in this country, he is not breaking any laws. Every talker talks like this at one time or another. But it is the constant hammering that is affecting voters. How would you combat it?

JACKSON: I think the president ought to go to Appalachia where you have these hard-working American veterans and coal miners who need Social Security, who need the unemployment compensation, who need the jobs, who come back home from Iraq. John Kennedy held up a black baby in his arms in Harlem, it was dismissed as one of the things liberal do. But Robert Kennedy went to Appalachia and held a white baby in his arms. That baby has bloated baby and runny nose catch America different. He catches the heart of the race meeting. And I think that President Barack has the kind of standing among working class white workers. Take his case to Appalachia and rule Alabama and travel the theme as he is doing. Stop the gushing of jobs and put America back to work. We must fight by one—America, we see America through a door and not to a keyhole and choose hope over fear, that‘s his mission. That‘s where his passion, he should stay right there.

SCHULTZ: And finally, this story that we did earlier, Reverend Jackson, minorities will have their voices squelched in this country if this trend continues of foreign money coming into the country. Is that an overstatement?

JACKSON: Well, not just minorities but all Americans who has amount of money, aiding by the money is the vulgar outlandish amount of money. But they come from nameless faces far is an insult to the integrity of our system. I remember—talks the truth some years ago, (INAUDIBLE). We should have hearings right now, where is the money coming from and vote elected officials, not foreign money. It is just unfair, it‘s not American and it‘s immoral.

SCHULTZ: Two things, Reverend Jackson, good luck to your bears and happy birthday and how does it feel to be 39 or whatever?

JACKSON: Fifty nine.

(LAUGHTER)

SCHULTZ: Look man, thank you. Keep them alive, man, keep them alive.

SCHULTZ: All right. Reverend Jackson, good to have you with us tonight. Now, let‘s get some rapid fire response from our panel on these stories.

The white house is shooting down Bob Woodward‘s speculation that Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, might be tapped to be President Obama‘s running mate in 2012. David Axelrod called it absolutely fiction.

More bad news for Meg Whitman. And now, her former nanny has come forward backing up the former housekeeper‘s claims of cruelty. The ex-nanny said Whitman treated her domestic workers as disposable.

And the GOP‘s pledge to America, isn‘t even a blip on the electoral radar screen. Only one-third of Americans have heard about it.

With us tonight, Bill Press, nationally syndicated radio talk show host and Karen Hanretty, republican strategist. Great to have both of you with us tonight.

All right. Hillary Clinton, is this the hot rumor in D.C.? I guess, Bill Press, I would like to have Bob Woodward come out and give us his source on this. Wouldn‘t that make it the juicy story but he is not doing it. It is book promotion, isn‘t not?

BILL PRESS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Oh, of course, he doesn‘t have any source. Look, I think Bob Woodward is an outstanding reporter. But he ought to stick to reporting, Ed, he ought to stick to reporting on wars and leave the inside the beltway political gossip to somebody else. Here is zero evidence to support this. I also think it‘s a dumb idea. I mean, look, Hillary is an outstanding secretary of state. I think one of the best we have ever had. Joe Biden is a phenomenal vice president, one of the best we‘ve ever had. There is no way Barack Obama is going to throw Joe Biden overboard and make Hillary vice president, makes presidential candidate. Makes no sense at all, there‘s nothing to it but it gets Bob Woodward some headlines.

SCHULTZ: No doubt about that. But I think Americans ought to take notice, it‘s not source, he says, it is on the table. Who told you it is on the table? This is the reaction from the secretary of state?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think the vice president is doing a wonderful job. He is a great friend of mine. We work together closely. He is an expert on foreign policy, chaired the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate for years and we have a great relationship and I have absolutely no interest and no reason for doing anything other than just dismissing these stories and moving on. Because there is just no—we have no time. We have so much to do. And I think both of us are very happy doing what we are doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Karen, what do you make of the answer?

KAREN HANRETTY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: The answer is fine. I think she could have been a little more up front. Of course, this is ridiculous, I am not going to be the vice president in the 2012 election. But this is a typical inside-the-beltway story. You know, and the newspapers are picking it up. They are going to take anonymous sources speculating about rumors and run with it. This has someone‘s publicist written all over it. The only interesting thing is that I do think there are a fraction of Democrats who really do wish Hillary was going to be on that ticket and that are concerned about Obama‘s chances in 2012.

All right. Now, let‘s go to the situation with Meg Whitman. I mean, Karen, I‘ll ask you first. How do you get rid of this story?

HANRETTY: Well, you know, Gloria Allred is the ultimate bottom feeder. I saw her in 2003 try to do something very similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger. And it didn‘t work. So, you know, I look at the source. I consider the source is really Gloria Allred and however it is that she is manipulating these women.

SCHULTZ: Bill, does this give us an insight of who she really is?

PRESS: Yes, but look, wait, the source here is Nicky Diaz and the backing up the source now is Jill Armstrong. So you have got two women, two former employees who have come out and said that Meg Whitman is lying and she treated them like dirt. Meg Whitman cannot blame this anymore on Jerry Brown and you Karen, and Meg Whitman can‘t blame it on Gloria Allred. Stand up and take responsibility for her own actions. She broke the law. She ignored a Social Security letter and she treated her employees like dirt.

SCHULTZ: She treats workers lousy.

PRESS: Exactly.

SCHULTZ: She treats workers lousy. What about that? It‘s a fact.

HANRETTY: I think if voters are going to look at the two sources. Who are you going to believe, Meg Whitman or Gloria Allred? I think they are going to believe Meg Whitman. And if this is so legitimate, then why are they using Gloria Allred to announce this story? Why do they put her side by side with the housekeeper?

SCHULTZ: He is starting to move up a little bit. Great to have you with us tonight. Bill Press and Karen Hanretty. I appreciate your time here on THE ED SHOW.

HANRETTY: Thanks, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Coming up. Talking about freaky Christine O‘Donnell‘s life is becoming a toy story? I‘ll explain it. It‘s all in the Playbook next. And I am psyched for tonight‘s playbook.

Randy Moss is teaming up with Brett Favre and the Vikings. And they are in New York here this Monday night. I am going head to head with Stephen A. I don‘t think he is a fan of this deal. That‘s next on THE ED SHOW, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And it‘s not too late to let us know what you think, tonight‘s text survey question is, are you worried foreign money is influencing our elections? Text A for yes, text B for no to 622-639, results coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And in my Playbook tonight. Oh, it‘s been a tough 24 hours for our buddy Russ Feingold, senator from Wisconsin. Last night, the NFL made the Wisconsin senator stop using video of the one time Minnesota Viking—Randy Moss mooning the Green Bay Packer fans although it was popular in Minnesota at the time. This morning, Feingold and the rest of the cheese heads the proclamation were crushed again. They find out that Randy Moss, back to the Vikings. Traded from New England, third round choice. Moss has spent his first seven years in Minnesota racking up touchdowns. He was the first round pick in ‘98.

The 33-year-old soon to join 41-year-old Brett Favre and all-world running back Adrian Peterson in time to face the New York Jets, Monday night right here in the big city, at the Meadowlands Stadium. Now, the Vikings are currently one and two. But I think this move will definitely put them over the top. And there is only one guy that can straighten that out at this point, and that is my buddy, Stephen A. Smith, nationally syndicated radio talk show host and also, you could see his.

STEPHEN A. SMITH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What do you want, Ed. What do you want?

SCHULTZ: I want the Super Bowl, and I think now, this is the fantasy team to follow, they‘re going get there. Tell me about this move.

SMITH: Let me say this to you. In all seriousness, if Brett Favre can‘t win the Super Bowl this year, he needs to retire.

(CROSSTALK)

SMITH: Listen, you are talking about Randy Moss. You‘re talking about Bernard Berrian. You know, Sidney Rice, once he comes back from his injury, you‘ve got one of the best tight ends in football—you‘ve got the best running back in football in Adrian Petersen, you‘ve got a massive offensive line. And if you are Brett Favre, you have absolutely no excuse whatsoever for being inept, for being off target, for being fatigue, for being unenthused. The list goes on and on. This is his moment. He wanted it. He has got it.

(LAUGHTER)

SCHULTZ: You know what? I like being in that corner Stephen A.

SMITH: You do.

SCHULTZ: There is nothing wrong with good management of an NFL team.

SMITH: Ed, hold on. Time out, time out, Ed. This from Mr. Ed Schultz who was whining and moaning about my New York Yankees last year joins the proceeds? Oh, not that you‘ve got the crook, you have no problem with it all of a sudden? This is the hypocrisy that you‘re talking about, Ed.

SCHULTZ: You‘re going to be able to put Rice and Harvin and you can be able to put Moss over to the right, trips of the right, a single set back in Peterson and run left. He‘s going to beat the first man. We‘re gone. We‘re gone.

(CROSSTALK)

We‘re going to the Super Bowl. I‘m calling it out. We‘re going to the show.

SMITH: Listen to me, Mr. Schultz, we‘re not looking for your football analysis. You‘re a homer. You have no objectivity whatsoever. Everything about Brett Favre is absolutely right even though the man doesn‘t even want to report to work. We are living in a world where 14 million people plus are unemployed, OK?

SCHULTZ: Oh, come on!

SMITH: And this man doesn‘t want to show up to work.

SCHULTZ: He does so much for so many people.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: Brett Favre is an unselfish dude. He gives the Democrats, how about that? Yes.

SMITH: What? Did you just say Brett Favre is unselfish?

SCHULTZ: He gave to the local democratic congressman down there. He‘s a good guy. He‘s working hard. He‘s a grand daddy. He‘s going to be 41 this Sunday. And finally, -- all around and Stephen A., we‘re going to the show, brother. Good to have you with us.

SMITH: Ed, I‘ll give you this much, he‘s definitely unselfish but, you know what? With the money that he was collecting for doing nothing, he might as well have been generous for crying out loud.

SCHULTZ: Stephen A. Smith with us tonight on THE ED SHOW, always a pleasure. Couple of final pages in the Playbook tonight. Christine the teenage witch has her own action figure. Here we go, for only $39.95 you can be very proud owner of the Christine O‘Donnell witch doll. And not to worry, if you‘re not really into the witchcraft thing, there‘s also another option. How about the executive model of O‘Donnell‘s doll? How Professional.

And Governor Schwarzenegger? Yes. He‘s probably making some sense, he predicted that President Obama would win re-election in two years in an interview with a German news paper. He said that he was sure that President Obama would get a second term in office. I need to be on radio to do that imitation. And he said, the GOP wouldn‘t succeed in finding a candidate who could beat him in 2012. Good news. Well, hold on to that.

And finally, the so-called Bin Laden hunter has been arrested for domestic violence and third degree assault. Colorado State police arrested Gary Faulkner after his Ford explorer he was riding in crashed. The driver was hit with the DUI and Faulkner was a passenger. Police spokesman did not say if the injuries were from alleged domestic violence or from the crash. Faulkner was arrested in June in Pakistan while trying to hunt down Osama Bin Laden with a sword.

Coming up, I suspected a long time ago that the White House made a

shady back room deal on health care. And now Tom Daschle‘s talking. Just

wait until you hear what he had to say. PCCC Adam Green fought harder than

anybody for the bill that should have a public option. He sounds off,

next. Stay with us. [

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And finally tonight, President Obama kept the pro public option rhetoric well into the health care debate going a year ago. A former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle suggested that the White House abandon the public option in July in 2009 because of a deal they made with health care companies. Daschle walked that one back quickly, almost immediately, saying that the public option was only dropped when it became clear that it wouldn‘t get through Congress. Whichever version is true, the fact remains, The Health Care Insurance Industry has stabbed the president of the United States right in the back. President Obama‘s health care bill was a pretty good deal for the insurance companies but they‘re pouring money into the republican campaigns this year. With insurance companies flocking to Republicans and with Rahm Emanuel‘s departure, maybe now the Democrats will have the ammunition they‘ll need to bring back the public option.

Joining me now is Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the PCCC and you can find them online at boldprogressives.org. Adam, does this just confirm our worst fears that the deal was cut a long time ago yet it played out in the public that there was a chance? How do you feel about that?

ADAM GREEN, CO-FOUNDER, PCCC: It does. What Tom Daschle basically said today was that there was an active strategy from the very very beginning of the health care debate to appease the insurance companies and essentially sell the public option short. And, really, now this is the most clear example yet of preemptively caving before the fight has begun, regardless of what the public thinks. And folks in the White House are scratching their head, thinking why our former Obama voters not coming back out this year? Well, it‘s episodes like this, really, the Rahm Emanuel playbook of weakness and caving that, you know, they have to thank for that.

SCHULTZ: Now that Rahm Emanuel is gone, does that remedy the situation and give hope for the next phase of health care reform that liberals could push?

GREEN: It‘s certainly an opportunity for President Obama to change away from this weak mentality of preemptively caving before the fight, and instead, say, hey, when the public is on my side on a big progressive policy issue, I will fight for it. It‘s opportunity, it‘s not a promise yet.

SCHULTZ: Isn‘t there a big lesson to be learned here? I mean, the insurance companies came out on this bill. They‘re getting 30 million new customers with taxpayer dollars to be able to buy in and then they turn around and they campaign against the Democrats and President Obama. What do you make of that?

GREEN: Yes, it‘s called not compromising with your enemies. Stop pretending that Republicans are on your side if you deal with them. Stop pretending that corporate America‘s on your side. They will oppose you. The people who support you are the public. In the beginning of this public options fight, between 70 and 80 percent of the public wanted the public option. Many of those people, our folks right now are thinking, will I come out this year? And you know, for folks like me, for folks like you who are working really hard to tell progressive voters to come out and support progressive candidates this fall, this mentality of weakness really makes our jobs hard. So, we‘ll do our best but we‘ll see.

SCHULTZ: And I think we should point out the irony here that the new chief of staff, Mr. Rouse, is a former chief of staff for Tom Daschle.

GREEN: He was.

SCHULTZ: We‘ll find out if he‘s going to get in the way of the public option.

GREEN: We‘ll see.

SCHULTZ: Adam Green, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.